Influenced from an Early Age
by YT12J
Summary: An alternate to my story, The Experiments of Tom Marvolo Riddle, with a few differences. What if Tom Riddle was mysteriously transported to the hut on the rock just as Harry Potter learnt about magic? They become friends, unaware that one of them killed the other's parents and one of them destroyed the other's future self. They have no idea what brought him, and try to find out.


**Disclaimer: **I own nothing to do with the Harry Potter franchise. This is a fanfiction, and is not intended to breach copyright.

**Author's Note: **I hope you like this story, it is an alternate to my other story, The Experiments of Tom Marvolo Riddle, in which Tom transports himself to the future at a later age and slowly makes friends with a fifteen year old Harry. In this one Harry is eleven and he is twelve, Tom is transported by a currently unknown means, and they are friends immediately. Please review, and enjoy!

**Influenced from an Early Age – Chapter 1**

**Written By YT12J**

Harry looked into the darkness around him, happy that it would be his birthday in several minutes, but miserable that he had to sleep on the hard floor of the hut that his uncle forced them to stay in. He envied Dudley for the nice cosy sofa that he got to sleep on, and of course the many other things that Dudley had and he did not.

Mostly though, he envied Dudley for having a loving family. Even if they were generally unpleasant people they still loved their son, and treated him to many things that Harry did not have, though he didn't care about any games, TVs, or other luxury items. He only wished that his parents were still alive, or at least that his aunt and uncle would treat him better.

Harry looked at Dudley's watch. It read 20 seconds to midnight, or as Harry thought of it, twenty seconds to his 11th birthday.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, maybe a stray wind would sweep him away from the Dursleys as a birthday present, two, one.

BOOM

A sudden loud noise from the door made him jump with surprise. On the sofa Dudley snored, and remained asleep.

And then suddenly there seemed to be a small explosion near the door, blasting the door off its hinges, and also throwing an extremely large dark shape backwards, or at least that was what Harry thought. In the same place that the second explosion happened a small boy appeared, seemingly not much older than Harry, possibly around twelve or thirteen. Harry gaped, not quite believing what his eyes were telling him. The boy fell to the floor and didn't move again.

Just as Harry was about to get up and see if the boy was okay, the dark shape from before appeared again, and Harry found himself looking at an extremely large man with a grin on his face. He opened his mouth and boomed "'Ello Harry. How are yeh?"

This time Dudley woke up, falling off the sofa, his mouth opening and closing in surprise. Then he suddenly started to scream, making Harry jump again, and making the large man frown. The door to the bedroom burst open and Uncle Vernon charged in, a rifle in his hands, and a pale faced Aunt Petunia at his side.

"Get lost you beast! I'm armed, don't come any closer!" He was shaking so much that if the man did move any closer Uncle Vernon would probably faint. Aunt Petunia had a similar expression, while Dudley had already run out of the room to hide.

"Tha's not very nice." Said the man. He then walked over, grabbed the rifle and bent it in half like it was made of rubber. Uncle Vernon squeaked, not moving too much, and Aunt Petunia looked like she might never move again. Harry smiled slightly, while he was still quite scared it was funny for him to see his relatives that scared.

Before the man could open his mouth Harry quickly asked "Is that boy with you? He looks quite hurt, you should take him to a hospital." The man looked in the direction he was pointing and scratched his head, confused. Even Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were bending their necks, trying to see if there was someone, though Uncle Vernon didn't have much luck bending his.

"Wha' are yeh talkin' about, wha' boy?" The man replied. Harry was going to ask why he couldn't see the boy but decided against it. He didn't want to be seen as weird, seeing a boy that wasn't there. And his relatives wouldn't appreciate more 'freakishness'. "Never mind," He said quickly. "Who are you? How do you know my name?"

The man smiled again. "I'm Rubeus Hagrid, keeper o' keys at Hogwarts, but yeh can call me Hagrid, mos' people do."

After a lengthy discussion in which Harry showed that he didn't know anything about Hogwarts or magic, and Hagrid showed that he knew a lot about yelling, it was eventually explained to him that he would be going to a school of magic in September, and he was even shown the letter that had caused so much havoc. Dudley also decided to enter when a birthday cake was brought out, and got a pig's tail for eating some of the cake. Vernon, Petunia and Dudley all screamed and locked themselves in the bedroom, leaving Harry, Hagrid and the seemingly invisible boy alone. The boy was still asleep on the ground, and Harry was desperate to check on him, but he didn't want Hagrid to know that he could see someone that wasn't there.

After some more talking Hagrid finally said "Tomorrow we can go teh get yer things for school, yeh'll be needin' a lot more than jus' a wand. 'Ere," He said, handing over his abnormally large coat. "Yeh can get some sleep under tha'. G'nigh'"

Harry lied down on the floor, putting the coat over him. It was so large that he was kept quite warm and comfortable underneath it. He lay there for a while until he heard Hagrid snoring. He slowly put the coat on the floor and walked over to the boy. Grabbing the boy's shoulders, he shook them lightly and whispered 'Hello? Wake up! Are you alright?"

After a few moments the boy stirred and Harry released him. The boy's eyes opened and glared straight at Harry. He slowly got up, shaking away any offer of help, and got to his feet. He looked at Harry suspiciously for a few minutes before his expression cleared and he spoke. "Who are you, and how did you bring me to wherever this is? Are you a wizard?"

Harry nodded. The last question would have been extremely confusing a day ago, but after speaking to Hagrid he knew how to answer it. "Yeah, I am a wizard. My name's Harry, Harry Potter, and I have no idea how you got here. You just appeared fin some sort of explosion, and I had nothing to do with it. What's your name?"

The boy seemed to believe him as he remained calm, and then replied. "My name's is Tom, Tom Riddle. I would say that it is nice to meet you, Harry Potter, but I am extremely confused about how I got here, and I want to know what's going on. How old are you? You look old enough to be a Hogwarts student, but I'm not too sure."

"I'm not a Hogwarts student yet," He replied. "In fact I didn't even know about magic until Hagrid told me today. I'm eleven, I turned eleven today."

Tom frowned. "Hagrid? You mean that oaf –"He gestured to Hagrid's sleeping figure "- Is Rubeus Hagrid?"

"Yeah, why? Do you know him?"

Ignoring his question Tom said "How can that be Hagrid? Unless –"It seemed like an idea had suddenly dawned on him "What year is this?"

Harry's eyes widened. He wasn't exactly sure why Tom wanted to know, but he had a suspicion about it, one that was not good at all. "It's the thirty-first of July, 1991. Why do you want to know?"

"That's impossible!" Tom murmured. "This year is over fifty years from when I was, in my second year, inside Hogwarts. This must be quite a serious situation, you can't just disappear from Hogwarts and appear fifty years later, it's just impossible."

Harry went pale, shocked by Tom's words. "But doesn't time travel exist with wizards? Surely you have some sort of spell for that, maybe someone cast it on you?"

Tom glanced at him, suddenly curious. "No, there is a way, but you don't cast it, it's not a spell, and it definitely doesn't work to this extent. Also, you said that you didn't find out about magic until today. Does that mean that you are a muggle-born?"

"What does that mean?" Harry asked.

"It means that both of your parents are muggles, and that you are the first wizard in your family."

Harry shook his head. "Then no. My parents are dead, that's why I don't know about magic. They were both wizards, but Hagrid said that my mum had muggle parents and my dad had wizard parents."

Tom nodded. "That would make you a half-blood, just like me." They both stared at each other for a few moments until Harry decided to change the subject and ask a question.

"Why is it that I am the only person that can see you? Hagrid and my aunt and uncle all couldn't see you, but I could. Is it some sort of spell from before you came here? Though that wouldn't explain why I can see you."

Tom looked genuinely confused. "Nope, there were no spells put on me before I arrived here. Maybe it's just a bit of accidental magic, because I'm in a foreign place and you're the only other young wizard here. Don't worry about it, it'll probably wear off anyway. But forget that, can you do me a small favour?"

"What is it?" Harry said, willing to do whatever it took to help Tom get back home.

"Can you not tell anyone about me, and let me stay with you for a while until I find a way back? If just one wizard discovered me they would lock me up for all sorts of tests because I'm a time traveller."

Harry nodded. "Don't worry, I don't want them to lock you up. You're just about my only friend in the world at the moment, and I don't want to lose you."

Tom frowned. "What do you mean I'm your only friend? Surely you have loads of other friends, I can't be your only one."

Harry shook his head, slightly embarrassed. "No, I don't have any other friends. My cousin Dudley, the fat boy in the other room, he scares away anybody who even looks at me. He, my Uncle Vernon, and my Aunt Petunia all try to make my life as miserable as possible. They even make me sleep in a small cupboard underneath the stairs, and make me cook all of the meals."

Rage was shown clearly on Tom's face. "I'm tempted to go into that room and show them what I think of their horrible behaviour, but they wouldn't exactly see me so there isn't much point."

"It would still be worth the look on their faces if they hear someone screaming at them that they can't see."

Tom nodded. "Anyway, we have to figure out exactly how I got here. I'm guessing there was some sort of magical accident in Hogwarts that sent me here, but I'm not too sure. I don't know if you know but you can't do magic outside of school until you're seventeen because people track you, so I can't try casting any charms to see if I can detect anything."

"But if you're in the future why would they still be tracking you?" Harry asked.

Tom nodded. "Good point. I'll start casting some charms, you get to bed. When I'm done I'll lie back down and try to get some sleep until the morning, though I'm not sure if I'll be able to."

Harry frowned. "You're going to sleep on this stone floor? Don't do that, you can come and lie down underneath Hagrid's coat with me! It'll be much more comfortable, and you'll be able to get some sleep and not fall ill in the middle of the night."

Tom sighed. "I don't know, I'll be fine on the floor."

Harry shook his head. "No way, I'm not having you falling ill! It'll be fine, if Hagrid can't see you then there'll be no problem."

Tom shrugged his shoulders. "I guess if you're alright with it then I am as well. Fine, you go and lie down, I'll join you in a bit, and hopefully we'll be able to figure something out tomorrow. I think I know where Hagrid's taking you, and it should work out in my favour as well. Good night, Harry."

Harry nodded. "Good night, Tom." He then walked over to the floor next to the sofa, and lied down on the floor, putting the coat over him, and leaving some room for Tom to lie down underneath as well. He then thought about exactly what would happen the next day, and wondered if they would figure out how to get Tom back. He also hoped that nothing would scare away the only friend that he had, including himself.

**Author's Note:** I hope you liked that chapter! I have no idea when the next when will be out, but if you get impatient why not check out my other story which is the same as this one except for a few differences. Also, I want to make it clear that this is not a slash story in any way. The only reason that they are sleeping next to each other that one time is because of Harry's generosity, not so that they develop a relationship. Until the next time, bye!


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